Unbridled Wealth And Abject Deprivation, Two Sides Of The Capitalist Coin.

      Approximately 300 years or so of capitalism and its success story is that it has produced unimaginable wealth. Of course with the base line of capitalism being unbridled exploitation and selfish gain, that wealth has become extremely concentrated in a very few hands. With that gross wealth concentrated in so few hands, comes power concentrated in so few hands.

      Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recently reached a net worth of $105 billion, making him the richest person in the world — and ever in history.
        A recent study released by Oxfam found that the top 1% has owned more wealth than the rest of the world's population since 2015. And the eight richest have the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world — nearly 4 billion people. If these top billionaires continue to see returns on their wealth, we could see the world's first trillionaire in as little as 25 years.

       It is, of course obvious that if the world's population produces all this wealth and it ends up in so few hands, the majority are the losers. Leaving the parasite world of millionaires/billionaires and entering the real world of ordinary people we see a very different story. While that few can purchase a £150 million yacht to pass their time with, the majority struggle to keep a half decent standard of living.
      In my previous post "In Despair, I repeat Myself."  I highlighted the billions that struggle to survive in the most abject deprivation. A high percentage of those ignored human beings, live in the so called "third world" or developing countries. However, capitalism carries its poverty everywhere, even in the so called "developed world". Some facts from very rich developed Europe.
SCOTLAND: 

 

       Almost one in four (230,000) of Scotland’s children are officially recognised as living in poverty[i]. This is higher than in many other European countries[ii]. In the absence of significant policy change, this figure is likely to rise in the coming years with independent modelling by the Institute for Fiscal studies (IFS) forecasting that more than a third of children in the UK will be living in poverty by 2021/22. [iii] This would reverse the fall in child poverty observed in the UK since the late 1990s. [iv]
      There is hope that action will be taken to reverse this trend in Scotland where the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 places a duty on the Scottish Government to eradicate child poverty by 2030.
        It comes after stark figures last week showed about a million Scots are now living in relative poverty – including one in four children.

SPAIN: 

        After the economic crisis and years of austerity, child poverty is on the rise in wealthy countries, according to Unicef. In Spain, the proportion of children living below the poverty line increased by nine percentage points between 2008 and 2014, to reach almost 40%.
       While child poverty in general rose significantly, the sharpest increase (56%) was among households of four people (two adults and two children) living on less than €700 per month, or €8,400 per year.

ITALY:

      Those living in “absolute poverty” rose to 5.1 million last year, or 8.4 percent of the population, despite a fourth consecutive year of modest economic growth. That was up from 7.9 percent in 2016 and the highest since current records began in 2005, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported.
     ISTAT defines absolute poverty as the condition of those who cannot buy goods and services “essential to avoid grave forms of social exclusion”.
     Italy emerged from a steep double-dip recession in 2014, but the report shows that the slow growth posted since then has done little to help its poorest.

 GREECE:

       Greece shows the second highest rate of severe material deprivation (21.1 percent) in the EU, meaning that more than one in five Greeks can not afford to pay their bills, Eurostat says.
        According to a report called “Can you afford to pay all your bills?” released on Wednesday, the European statistical authority finds that more than one five Greeks can not afford at least four of the following:

• pay their bills on time
• keep their home adequately warm
• face unexpected expenses
• eat meat (or fish or the vegetarian equivalent) regularly
• take a one week holiday away from home
• a TV
• a washing machine
• a car
• a telephone
  

AND:

Figures show that between 2010 and 2016, the percentage of children in Greece that were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, jumped from 28.7% to 37.5%; i.e. up by 8.8%.

       So no matter where capitalism slithers its cancerous tentacles, the result is the same, unbridled wealth for the few, and unimaginable deprivation for the many. It is a man made economic system, not some immutable set of laws set in stone, we can throw its set of unjust rules in the dust bin and start again, building a system based on the needs of all our people, sustainability and justice.

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

A POVERTY CHRISTMAS TO MANY.

    Well it's Christmas, that time of year when the retail wing of the corporate Mafia start to rub their sweaty hands in greedy anticipation. The babbling brook of bullshit, the media, has been singing songs of woe, on how the poor retail outlets have been having a hard time. This they blame on anything from the weather being too wet, too cold, or whatever, they always fail to mention that it is in fact caused by us being too poor.

       Scotland's population is approximately 5.2 million, a relatively small country and a relatively small population. It is also a very rich little country with lots of assets including, whisky exports, oil, wind/wave and hydro-power to export. It has however, one big snag, its economic system, lots of wealth but in the hands of very few. The result of this insane economic system is that we have some of the worst poverty levels in Europe. From our small population we have over 220,000 children living in poverty, that accounts for more than 1 in 4 of our kids. We have numerous districts where the level of children living in poverty is over 30%. Aberdeen, recently listed in some poll or other, as the best place to live in Scotland, has a child poverty level of 35%. This is by no means the worst, We have Scotstoun coming in at 36%, Anderson at 37%, Govan at 38%, Drumchapel at 40% and it doesn't stop there. Coming in at the top of this indictable list of greed created poverty is Springburn, with a staggering 52% of the children in that area living in poverty. Trying having a Merry Xmas with these figures.

      These are the figures behind all the shit about austerity, growth and retail problems. All the facts and figures banded about by the economic experts never manage to put the real misery lived by the people, onto their balance sheets. It's all numbers about debit and credit  disguising malnutrition, health problems from lack of heating, stunted potential, and poisoned dreams. For it to be other, we have to get rid of this insane, unjust, system of exploitation that is sanitised by balance sheets and passed of as fair and the only game in town. Capitalism is not set in tablets of stone, it is a man made system  that works for the benefit of the few. We can, if we have the real desire, create another system that is based on the needs of all our people, built on sustainability, co-operation and mutual aid. The first step has to be bring down this present system that depends on the  rape of the planet and its people.

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ELECTION, DEMOCRACY-MY A***.

         As the election is now set to occupy the media in its usual frenzy of excitement about nothing, we will be plagued by promises of how each and every one of the parties has the answer to our problems. The fact that we have had elections for some considerable time and the ordinary people still struggle to raise a family in decent conditions, should tell us something. Elections are a theatre put on to create the illusion that we the ordinary people are involved in the decision making process. However, no matter how we vote or if we vote, we still have to struggle to survive while the parasitical rich continually get richer. There's something wrong with the system!!! Everybody that enters the Westminster House of Corruption, comes out richer than they went in, while those who put them there are still struggling along trying to make ends meet.

       We should try to grasp the facts, the corporate world make the decisions and the sleazy two faced politicians are there to give it all a look of democracy by putting their stamp of legitimacy on those decisions. Look at what we have, CCTV cameras everywhere, was that in the party manifesto, did you vote for them? Selling off public assets at bargain prices, did you vote for that? Privatising large sections of education and health, did you vote for that? Billions given to the big banks, did you vote for that? Our money being spent on illegal invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the slaughter, did you vote for that? Because of the bail-out for the rich and comfortable, we are now heading for drastic cuts in our standard of living through savage cuts to health, education, benefits, pensions etc. did you vote for that?

      While the rich parasites plunder the public purse, with the blessing of their bed-mates, the political puppets, a couple of figures should make interesting reading. In Scotland the number of people living below the median wage has rise from the year 06/07. the figures for 07/08 are 8% of the population live on or below 40% of the median, 13% live below 50% of the median and 19% live below 60% of the median. With the present  “economic climate” these figures are sure to rise. Where was the money to bail-out these people, after all we are told it is a democracy. It is an cruel illusion, a cage of exploitationa, a rich parasites paradise, a blind alley for our kids, not a democracy. For ann arky's view on elections read, HERE.

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